Taliban annually earn $200m from drug trade: Nicholson

KABUL (Pajhwok): US and Afghan forces in a rare development jointly pounded Taliban’s heroin processing factories in southern Helmand province, the world’s largest opium producing region, officials said on Monday.

The first joint airstrikes on what officials said Taliban’s financing sources were carried out last night in northern parts of Helmand.

NATO and US forces top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson told a press conference in Kabul the insurgents earned a huge income from drug trade and funded the insurgency.

Flanked by Afghan Army Lieutenant General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, the US general said aircraft targeted drugs processing labs of Taliban and the joint operation showed the will to defeat terrorists existed.

He said Afghanistan produced 85 percent of the world’s heroin and in this regard the Taliban and other armed groups had a role.

Gen. Nicholson said revenue from Afghanistan drugs stood at $60 billion and $200 million of the income went into bank accounts of the insurgent leaders.

He said like terrorism, drugs posed threat to the world and insisted the joint operations against drugs would continue in the country.

Opium production in Afghanistan reached record highs this year, up 87 percent on last year, the United Nations said last week.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said output of opium made from poppy seeds in Afghanistan, the world’s main source of heroin, stands at around 9,000 metric tons this year.

UNODC has warned in the past that Kabul’s weakening grip on security was contributing to a collapse in eradication efforts.

Nearly half of Afghan opium is processed, or refined into morphine or heroin, before it is trafficked out of the country, according to US and Afghan officials.

Nicholson said the attacks were part of US President Donald Trump’s new policy towards Afghanistan as he boosts troop numbers.

The four-star general showed one video of an F-22 fighter jet dropping 250-pound bombs on two buildings, emphasising that a nearby third building was left unscathed

The US general asked the Taliban to join the peace process because they could not win militarily. About Daesh or Islamic State group, he said it remained the alliance top priority to eliminate the group and operations against outfit would continue.

General Yaftali said the Taliban were a bunch of criminals and miscreants who supported cultivation of drugs in areas under their control to destroy Afghanistan’s future.

We’re determined to tackle criminal economy and narcotics trafficking with full force,” said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Twitter.